[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist

[materpillar]

My friend played this for a while years ago. It did a pretty good job pumping out a bajillion bodies. It's expensive but seems pretty good to flicker into a craterhoof behemoth

[rogerandover]

Oh, this is my boy. When I started playing EDH I was all into UBw-control, but then I found Hazezon Tamar in my LGS's pennybox (along with other goodies) and I had to make a deck for him, even though he was in the colors I like the least.
Through the years the deck has seen a coulpe of iterations, but it has always been about flickering and a coulpe of years ago, when Modern Horizon came along, I also made an Astral Slide deck with him, which is actually kinda great.
Love this guy and he pulls a lot of hipster-credit

[TheAmericanSpirit]

It's a rad commander for sure, but it exists in the same category of "LET-ME-TELEGRAPH-MY-RAMP-ENDGAME" as Maelstrom Wanderer, et al. These kind of decks are like a minigun; once you ramp up, you're pretty deadly but pretty vulnerable up until that point. Any player who can see your commander will have good cause to point stray attacks your way or save removal/wipes/counters to judo chop your big plays.

[Venedrex]

Well, I prefer Hazezon, Shaper of Sand because he doesn't cost as much as a Switch. Also he can come down earlier and you get to roleplay as Paul Atreides and wurms.

[Sinis]

Hazezon was one of the few Legends-Legends without a reprint (that I care about) that slipped through my grasp over the last decade.

I'm glad they did the reimaginings in Dominaria United, because most of these guys have aged so badly that they range well into unplayable/pricy-figurehead status.

[Mookie]

In terms of competitiveness, Hazezon Tamar doesn't really justify his price tag - Avenger of Zendikar is generally going to be superior unless you really need the ability to generate a ton of tokens in the command zone. He is sort of neat if you want to build a retro theme deck though - a lot of the legendary creatures in Legends were pretty boring, but Hazezon is at least interesting. The delayed trigger means you can do stuff like follow him up with a board wipe and have a giant army come in on the next turn.

On the flip side, I've seen Hazezon, Shaper of Sand be a surprisingly strong and resilient deck - having a Crucible of Worlds in the command zone (even if it is Desert-only) gives you a very consistent engine for fueling Crop Rotation, Harrow, and other land synergy cards. Somewhat similar to Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Hazezon lets you hit your land drops every turn, which makes it challenging to keep him off the table due to commander tax. Finally, he's capable of generating a very wide board by himself - two tokens per land drop is no joke. The deck is a bit soft to board wipes and grave hate, but overall quite solid, and something to keep an eye on if we ever return to Amonkhet / see more Deserts printed.

[Treamayne]

I've had a number of Hazezon Tamar decks on MTGO over the decaades (token, Warriors, Enchantress, etc.) but my favorite one to pilot was Hazezon Manlands. The animated land theme reinforced his trigger, and his tokens helps provide defense When Manlands Attack^TM.

It was fun.

[3drinks]

Sunday, February 12th, 2023; Prizefight

The most efficient fight card ever. Unconditional, instant speed, and an effective 1mv I'd have to err on the side of overpushed. But man what art though. Incredible.

And in honour of today for all the American users, extra RCotD of Strixhaven Stadium

[Serenade]

I'm probably using Bite Down or Master's Rebuke over it first, though, unless I have some treasure/artifact synergy.

[Guardman]

Strixhaven Stadium is a great wincon in any go wide deck, especially token go-wide. You can often just take a player out as soon as you play it. The fact that it is a mana rock is just cake.

As for Prizefight, it is an all star in my Neyith of the Dire Hunt Brawl deck on Arena. I haven't tried it any of my treasure decks yet, but it would probably play well there, especially with Goldspan Dragon.

[illakunsaa]

I've been playing Stadium in my derevi birds deck and it is kinda disgusting. Connect with 5 creatures and somebody dies.

[3drinks]

Monday, February 13th, 2023; Arlinn, the Pack's Hope // Arlinn, the Moon's Fury

[Sinis]

For Flash, not quite as mana efficient as Vivien, Champion of the Wilds... but, I think this is an interesting piece for Werewolf decks where the Flash can be important to manage the day/night cycle. Otherwise unremarkable, and probably not very good.

[3drinks]

For Flash, not quite as mana efficient as Vivien, Champion of the Wilds... but, I think this is an interesting piece for Werewolf decks where the Flash can be important to manage the day/night cycle. Otherwise unremarkable, and probably not very good.

I only like the impression it does of Gideon tbh.

[illakunsaa]

You can equip Helm of the Host on night side.

[Mookie]

Arlinn, the Pack's Hope // Arlinn, the Moon's Fury has some fun design - her day side gives your creatures flash to help flip to night (by not casting spells on your turn), while the night side gives you mana to cast two spells and flip back to day. That said, I don't see myself running her outside a dedicated werewolf deck.

[Sinis]

For Flash, not quite as mana efficient as Vivien, Champion of the Wilds... but, I think this is an interesting piece for Werewolf decks where the Flash can be important to manage the day/night cycle. Otherwise unremarkable, and probably not very good.

I only like the impression it does of Gideon tbh.

We really like our creatures.

It's too bad that Day/Nightbound adds book-keeping to the game.

[3drinks]

Tuesday, February 14th, 2023; Intangible Virtue|tsr

Remember when this card was banned in block constructed because this and lingering souls|tsr were both uncommon?

[Sinis]

I feel with the decks focused on tokens, this card is highly playable. If you're not playing tokens, Always Watching exists.

Mass Vigilance is a big deal for me; I like being able to just bash players while still having defenses available. Honourable mention to Brave the Sands which lets you chump block with twice the efficiency.

[Mookie]

Intangible Virtue is one of the better anthems available for token decks - two mana is pretty cheap for this effect, and you also get the bonus upside of vigilance. It's a bit less valuable to commanders like Teysa Karlov and God-Eternal Oketra (since they already get vigilant tokens), but still worth consideration. I'll call out Inspiring Leader as an upgrade over this, but it's not like anthems are bad in multiples.

On a related topic, I feel like vigilance is a very nice keyword from a quality of life perspective. Throughout any game, you need to make a bunch of choices and consider many possible scenarios, and the more choices you have to make, the more likely you are to miss a key piece of information or make a wrong decision. Mass vigilance removes one of those questions - you no longer need to decide between attacking and blocking... and that decreased mental burden can certainly add up over time. I'd also hypothesize that having a shorter turn will cause opponents to treat you as slightly less threatening, although that may be balanced by the fact that you're attacking more often. Hmmm.... Similar to 'not needing to think about discarding to hand size', I'm not willing to spend a full card on it... but if I get it for low cost on a land or mana rock, I'll certainly consider it.

....now I want to run some experiments re: discarding to hand size. If one player has twenty cards in hand, while another player has seven cards in hand after discarding another thirteen to hand size, which one will other players consider more threatening? It should be the former... but if the latter just discarded a bunch of haymakers (while the latter hasn't been casting spells), then I suspect many players would adjust their mental math.

[Treamayne]

Definitely one of the better anthems in the right deck. Was fun in a creatureless enchantress build focusing on things like Sigil of the Empty Throne, Felidar Retreat, Fable of Wolf and Owl, etc.

Oh, the decks of yesterdecade. . .

I suspect many players would adjust their mental math.

Especially if they are wary of GY abuse. For example, discarding 13 cards to hand size if very different in GB than it may be in UR. Even without obvious recursion already present. . .

[3drinks]

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023; Storm's Wrath

[Dunadain]

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023; Storm's Wrath

Like most of the red damage wipes, it's a good idea if your commander is an x/5.

[Sinis]

Red damage wraths are really double-edged. Every Sword of Protection and Value that has protection from red has been printed: Sword of War and Peace, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Sinew and Steel, and now, Sword of Forge and Frontier.

This is double-edged; on the one hand, it won't necessarily kill your opponent's sword-wielding creature. On the other, it won't kill your sword-wielding creature.

[Dunharrow]

I am not huge on this one. It has a few specific places to run it, but when I build a control deck I often have planeswalkers and this is just awkward compared to other similar wraths.
So for me it is good in R/x decks that can make this wrath lopsided by having big creatures or ways to stop your creatures dying to wraths.
If it is for control, I would rather play something else.

But then there are so many of these. Hour of Devastation, Burn Down the House, etc.
So this becomes even more niche. Your general has to have exactly 5 toughness or you play other cards.